Trump picks Baker scholar for energy post

President Donald Trump on Friday nominated Linda Capuano, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, to head the Energy Information Administration.

The EIA, the statistical agency of the Department of Energy, is one of the world's most prominent providers of data and analysis on the world's energy sector, tracking everything from oil inventories to the growth of solar panels on the power grid.

A former executive at Marathon Oil, Capuano joined the Baker Institute in 2014 and conducted research into improving the treatment of brackish water that is a byproduct of oil and gas drilling. If confirmed, she would succeed Adam Sieminski, who was appointed EIA administrator by former President Barack Obama in 2012 and left the agency in January.

A spokesman for the Baker Institute said Capuano was not available for comment.

Edward Djerejian, director of the Baker Institute, said the announcement was a "reflection of the expertise of one of our fellows."

"We're a bridge between the world of ideas the world of action," he said. "We bring together people from the corporate world and government with scholars to produce ideas that reflect both worlds."

Founded as a think tank in 1993, the Baker Institute counts among its ranks a number of former high-ranking government officials. Among them are George W.S. Abbey, the former head of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Djerejian, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, as well as James Baker III, the former secretary of state and White House chief of staff, for whom the institute is named.

James Osborne covers the intersection of energy and politics from the Houston Chronicle’s bureau in Washington D.C. Before arriving at the Chronicle in 2016, he spent three years covering Texas’s energy sector for the Dallas Morning News, where he chronicled the hydraulic fracturing boom, the rise of the wind and solar industries and how technology is changing the ways we produce and consume energy. James’s work has appeared in publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time and Fox News.